A crowd had gathered outside Ocean Park Hong Kong three hours before opening on February 16 to see the Hong Kong-born giant panda twins in the fluffy flesh, as they turned six months old and could meet the public for the first time.

The pair of female and male pandas were born on August 15 last year to Le Le and Ying Ying, who were given as a gift by the central government to Hong Kong.

Visitors dashed towards the exhibition venue housing the giant pandas the second the amusement park opened. As many as 500 people queued outside the venue, which prompted the park to limit the window for each visit to 5 minutes.

The pair sparked an outpouring of love as they entered the display area in the arms of caretakers. They frolicked, scaled trees and rubbed their heads against each other, before hitting the sacks for a nap.

The older female cub has round black patches around the eyes and has proved to be a good tree climber. The male one is chubbier and darker, marked by squarer patches around the eyes, according to Elke Wu, assistant curator of zoological operations at Ocean Park Hong Kong.

The parents and children now live in separate areas. The mother Ying Ying has recovered her pre-maternal weight and gained greater gusto.

"The cubs are even cuter than what I saw in videos. I've already picked out names for them," said a teenager surnamed Zhou who purchased spin-off stuffed animals of the twins.

The park will extend visiting hours gradually for the public to see the twins from the second half of this year or next year, said Paulo Pong, chairman of Ocean Park Corporation, adding that new venues and a giant panda museum are also under planning.